PC Review Reviews Gaming Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil



Put simply, Resurrection of Evil is exactly the same to play as DOOM 3. You'll enter a dark room, quickly take out your flashlight, creepy beasts spawn in a dark corner, and you quickly swap to your gun and start blasting. This goes on for about 12 hours, which is actually a nice thing to see an expansion lasting that long. But the point is that it can become boring, fast. Fortunately, Resurrection of Evil does contain the same creepy moments that'll scare the crap out of you. This seems to be what pushes the game along and makes it at least a little less boring. However, the end of the game seems to slow down more and turns into more of a trial and error type of sequence. Even so, there are a few other additions made to the game in order to lower the boredom level. The main new attraction is the Grabber. Yes, it's basically the same as the gravity gun from Half-Life 2 . However, it does add a new way of playing the game as you can fling small demons or grab fireballs in midair and launch them back at your enemies. It fully uses the detailed physics system to its advantage, and it can even help in figuring out some small puzzles later on in the game.

Some more additions to the game include six new demons to meet your acquaintance. Some of these new creatures just simply look weird and others look almost like modified versions of existing DOOM 3 demons. Of course, all the original creatures are still here, but these new ones do provide for some variety in your enemies. Speaking of variety, the levels do seem to have much more to offer than the original game by providing a balanced system of both open and closed environments. In fact, the level design in this expansion is what DOOM 3 should have had in the first place.

There are also a few other items included in Resurrection of Evil that may grab your attention. Returning from DOOM II is the famous double-barreled shotgun which normally kills enemies in one shot. One of the most used weapons, however is actually the artifact that opened the hell gate. Charged by the power of dead souls, this device can wield some helpful powers. There are three powers in all which include Hell Time (Bullet Time), which slows down time to a crawl; Berserker, which lets you dish out some more damage; and finally Invulnerability, which gives you god mode for a few seconds. It's really an interesting weapon that will have to be used wisely in later battles in order to win. It's not just all about the new weapons, though, as this expansion also adds some new eight player multiplayer and the capture the flag mode. However, these simple multiplayer additions should have really been included with DOOM 3 itself.

The technology aspect of Resurrection of Evil hasn't changed since DOOM 3, but it really doesn't need to. There doesn't need to be any visual improvements here as this expansion looks just as good and dark as it did with the original game back in August. If anything needs to be changed it should probably be the gun sound effects which still sound a little too weak and fake.

In the end, DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil does introduce some new aspects to this series, but it also takes away from other areas of the game. Although it does lack the in-depth story, and the gameplay just doesn't seem as interesting anymore, it balances itself out with better designed levels and more variety overall. It really comes down to whether or not you can withstand 12 hours with the same gameplay over and over again. Perhaps it should only be recommended for those who absolutely loved DOOM 3, but once you get through it all it really does provide a somewhat enjoyable experience.